Posting tray for loose leaf filing systems



Oct. 21, 1959 2,91o;069.

POSTING TRAY FOR LOOSE LEAF FILING SYSTEMS F R. SEWELL 4 Sheets-Sheet A1 Filed June 22, 1956 Fig .1.

IN [/5 N TOR Frederi ck RoberfSewell BY M ATTORNEYS F. R. SEWELl IPOSTING TRAY FOR LOOSE LEAF FILING SYSTEMS 'Filed June 22) 1956 4Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VE N TOR Frederick Robert Sewel l ATTORN E )5 Oct. 27,1959 F. R. SEWELL 2,910,069

POSTING TRAY FOR LOOSE LEAF FILING SYSTEMS Filed June 22, 1956 4Sheets-Sheet 5 7 INVENTOR Frederick Robei't Sewell A TTORNE YJ' Oct. 27,1959 F. R. SEWELL POSTING TRAY FQR LOOSE LEAF FILING SYSTEMS Filed June22, 1956 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 ATTORNEYJ United States Patent POSTING TRAYFOR LOOSE LEAF FILING SYSTEMS Frederick Robert Sewell, Beckenham,England, assignor to Percy Jones (Twinlock) Limited, Beckenham, EnglandApplication June 22, 1956, Serial No. 593,150 Claims priority,application Great Britain August 29, 1955 2 Claims. (Cl. 129-46) Thisinvention relates to improvements in posting trays for loose leaffiling, of the kind in which a hori- 'zontal surface is provided uponwhich a number of loose sheets are supported on their edges, with siderails extending upwardly from such horizontal surface to maintain thelateral edges of the filed sheets in register, and with end platesextending upwardly from said horizontal surface, one of which isdisposed adjacent to one end of such surface and the other of which ismovable along the length of such surface to any desired position ofadjustment in which it can be locked, so as to retain in verticalposition the filed sheets when not required for reference or entriesthereon, the movable end plate being readily unlockable and movable toany desired position which may be convenient to permit of ready accessto individual sheets among the pack of filed sheets held on the tray.

The present invention provides an improved construction and mounting ofthe side rails of such posting trays whereby the insertion or withdrawalof one or more sheets from the tray is facilitated, and an improvedconstruction of the horizontal surface of the tray upon which the sheetsto be filed are supported, and upon which are mounted the side rails andend plates.

According to the invention, each side rail is pivotally mounted at eachend to the tray, and is held in a vertical or inclined position withrespect thereto by catch means, the mounting of the ends of the railincluding spring means normally maintaining the rails in engagement withsaid catches, the rail being manually movable against such spring meansto permit disengagement of the rail from the catches so as to enable itto be swung from its normal position retaining the posted sheets fromlateral movement to a position permitting such sheets to be withdrawnlaterally from the tray without hindrance. As will be appreciated, readymovement of the side rails of the tray to such unlatched positionspermits great ease and rapidity of side-wise or off-set posting orwithdrawal of sheets onto or from the tray, as opposed to the relativelycumbersome and slow method employed in earlier posting trays, in whichthe siderails are not movable, or are movable only after operation ofcomplicated release means, and which are therefore commonly employed inuse for vertical posting as opposed to off-set posting of the filedsheets.

The construction of the tray itself, upon which the side rails and endplates are mounted, comprises in accordance with the invention anassembly of a central standard unit, in which is mounted the guide andlocking means for the slidable end-plate normally provided with suchtrays, and a number of standard longitudinal sections adapted to besecured in pairs one on either side of the central unit to enable thetray to be built up from a stock of standard sections, e.g. ofchannel-form, to any desired width.

In accordance with a further feature of the invention,

the mounting of the said side rails comprises means for "ice retainingthe same in the normal locked sheet-retaining positions at any desiredone of a number of alternative positions of inclination, from thevertical to a widely inclined ,position.

The combination with side rails capable of this variable inclination tothe tray with the sectional build-up of the tray itself from standardstock units enables a posting tray to be constructed from a minimumnumber of standard stock parts in the factory to accommodate anextremely wide range of sheets of different widths, e.g. from sheets of6 width to sheets of 14" width.

One constructional form of tray embodying theaforementioned aspects ofthe invention will hereinafter be described by way of example only, byreference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is aperspective view showing the preferred form of posting tray inaccordance with the invention,

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view of part of the horizontalsupporting surface of the tray shown in Figure 1, on the line IIII ofFigure 3,

Figure 3 is a plan view of such horizontal surface,

Figures 4 and 5 are detail views showing the end mounting of one siderail of the tray, in its locked and released positions respectively,

Figure 6 is a detail view of part of a side rail taken at right anglesto Figure 4, and

Figures 7 and 8 are views similar to Figures 4 and 5, respectively,illustrating different positions of adjustment of the catch meansforming part of the mounting of the end of the side rail.

Referring to the drawings, the posting tray of the invention comprises ahorizontal tray portion generally indicate at 1, built up from a centralsection 2 and two channel section units 3' which are similar to eachother in all respects, one on each side of such central section 2. Asshown in the drawing, each channel section 3 has two longitudinalmembers 4 disposed within its two recesses 3a, the members 4 beingspot-welded or otherwise secured in such recesses; The outer edge ofeach unit 3 is formed with a flanged portion 5 and an inturned flange 6,and the inner end of each section 3 has a lateral extension 7.

Referring now to Figures 4 to 8 of the drawings, two side rails 9 areprovided on the tray portion 1, each rail being pivotally mounted bymeans of a slot 10 formed adjacent its lower end into which extends apin 11 provided on a standard 12. A spring 13 mounted in such standardurges the end of the rail 9 upwardly to maintain a pin 14 thereon inengagement in a notch or recess 15a formed in the end of an adjustablypositioned arcuate locking bar 15 arranged in an arcuate guideway 1211provided in the standard 12. A locking screw 16, arranged on the arcuatelocking bar 15, passes through a slot 12b provided in the guideway 12a,whereby the position of the locking bar 15 can be adjusted and securedwithin the limits provided by the slot 12b.

The side rails 9 are thus normally retained by the effort of the springs13 latched in the recesses 15a in the locking bars 15, which latter maybe fixedly secured either in the position shown in Figures 4 to 6,supporting the rails 9 in the vertical plane, or, as shown in Figure 8,in such a position as to support the rails 9 in planes inclined to thevertical. By this means, when the bars 15 have been brought to andsecured in the positions shown in Figure 8, the horizontal portions ofthe side rails 9 in their normal latched positions are displacedlaterally from above the tray 1, thus enabling the tray to accommodatesheets of a width greater than that of the tray. As will readily beseen, the desired angle of inclination of the side rails can be obtainedby suitable movement of the locking bars 15 as described above.

When it is desired to swing either or both of the side rails out of theway of the user, who wishes to withdraw or to insert a sheet or sheetsin the tray, slight manual pressure upon the horizontal portions of therails 9 causes the ends thereof to move downwardly against the etfort ofthe springs 13, until the pins 14 of the rails are freed from engagementin the recesses in the locking bars. The rails can then be swung on thepins 11 to the position shown in Figure 7. To return the side rails 9 totheir normal sheet-retaining positions, they are simply swung in thereverse direction until the pins 14 thereon engage the curved surfaces15b of the ends of the locking bars 15, as shown in Figures 4 to 8,whereby the ends of the rails are caused to move downwardly against thesprings 13, continuing swinging movement of the rails bringing the pins14 into register with the recesses 15a in the locking bars, into whichrecesses they are then moved by the springs.

The combination of the sectional construction of the tray with thelateral adjustability of the side rails, renders the improved postingtray to be readily manufactured and used in standard sizes ofconstructional parts so as to accommodate substantially all the usualwidth of sheet normally required to be posted in filing trays of thiskind.

I claim:

1. In a posting tray for loose leaf filing systems, a substantiallyhorizontal rectangular tray having a standard at each corner thereof, apair of generally U-shaped inverted side rails disposed along theopposite sides of said tray and having the lower ends of their legspivotally attached to corresponding standards at the corners of saidtray, said lower ends of the side rails being provided with elongateslots therein and each of said standards having a horizontal pinprojecting therefrom received in such slots whereby to effect thepivotal mounting of the side rails on the standards, a locking barcarried by each of saidstandards above said pin and having a downwardlyfacing hooked end portion above said pins, a locking pin carried by eachof said lower ends of the side rails cooperable with the hooked ends ofsaid locking bars and receivable therewithin to retain said side railsin a substantially upright position along the sides of the tray, springmeans engaging the lower ends of said side rails and normally urging thefirst mentioned pins to engage the bottoms of said elongate slotswherebyto engagesaid locking pins in said hooked end portions of the lockingbars and permitting the locking bars to be depressed relative to thestandards to Withdraw the locking pins from the hooked end portions ofthe locking bars and permit outward swinging movement of said siderails, said locking bars being of arcuate configuration and beingslidably received in arcuate channels in the standards, said arcuatelocking bars and said arcuate channels being concentric with saidhorizontal pins, 9. stop pin fixed to each locking bar and. each of saidstandards having an elongate slot therein receiving said stop pinslimiting lateral movement of said locking bars whereby said side railsmay assume an intermediate outwardly swung position without releasingsaid locking pins from said hooked end portions of .the locking bars.

2. A posting tray for loose leaf filing systems comprising a horizontalsheet supporting tray, a pair of normally upstanding side rails, one ofwhich is disposed along one side of the tray and the other of which isdisposed along the opposite side of the tray, pivot means fixed to saidtray adjacent the lower extremities of said side rails, lower portionsof said side rails provided with elongated apertures receiving saidpivot means to permit swinging movement thereof between substantiallyvertical positions and substantially horizontal outwardly swungpositions, an elongate bar slidably carried by said tray on each sidethereof above and adjacent the pivot means of its respective side railand being movable back and forth in the direction of pivotal movement ofsaid side rails, means on said tray limiting the sliding movement ofsaid bars, a notch on the lower edge of each bar, a pin on each siderail engageable in the notch of its corresponding bar and disposed at apoint on each side rail spaced vertically of its pivotal connection tothe tray, and spring means carried by said tray normally urging each ofsaid side rails in a direction to engage said pin in said notch.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,573,935 Hadley Feb. 23, 1926 1,831,938 Webb Nov. 17, 1931 2,190,178Wolters Feb. 13, 1940 2,556,633 Power et a1. June 12, 1951 FOREIGNPATENTS 640,970 Great Britain Aug. 2, 1950 a. -.an-=.....

